BLT — Bible * Literature * Translation

reading the Old Testament as New Testament: one way to convert the Greek language

Here’s a little fun. After I’ve read the New Testament in Greek too long, and then jump over to a translation like the ESV, then I find myself to start imaging how the ESV team might render the Greek of the Septuagint (as) if it were their New Testament.

Joshua 3:1 would start like this:

And Jesus resurrected [καὶ ἀνέστη Ἰησοῦς]

And Joshua 9:2b (which is numbered 8:30 in the Hebrew Bible) would continue like this:

Then Jesus built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on mount Gaebal, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded the Sons of Israel,

as it is written in the Law [νόμῳ, nomos, not Torah] of Moses,

“an altar of whole [ὁλοκλήρων, holos] stones, on which iron had not been laid.”

And he drew up there whole burnt offerings [ὁλοκαυτώματα, holos] to the Lord, and a Sacrifice of Salvation [θυσίαν σωτηρίου, Thusias Soterios].

And Jesus wrote Deuteronomy [δευτερονόμιον, “the second book of the Law”] — the Law [νόμον] of Moses — upon the stones; he wrote it in front of the Sons of Israel.

And all Israel, and their Presbyters [πρεσβύτεροι, or “official Elders”], and their Judges, and their Scribes, passed on one side and on the other side of the ark its opposite.

And the Priests and the Levites took up the ark of the Old Testament [διαθήκης, not covenant so much] of the Lord, and so did the Proselytes [προσήλυτος, or “converts”], even the Locals, half near mount Garizin, and half near mount Gaebal,

as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded,

to bless the Laity [λαὸν], at first.

And after these things, Jesus read all the words of this Law — the blessings and the curses — according to all things written in the Law [νόμῳ] of Moses. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded Jesus, which Jesus did not read not into the ears of all “The Church [ἐκκλησίας, ecclesia] of the Sons of Israel,” to the husbands, and to the wives, and to the little children, and to the Proselytes [προσήλυτος, or “converts”] who went on over to Israel.